Romans 7

“… so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (v6).  Paul contrasts our old lives and our new lives in Christ Jesus by using various metaphors.   We were servants of sin; now we are servants of God (6:12,13).  We were married to the old life; now we have died, been freed, and are “married” to a new spouse (7:2).  We were rescued out of the kingdom of death (v24), into the kingdom of the Son.

No longer slaves to sin, no longer separated from our Father, we have been forgiven and adopted as beloved children (ch 8) who live “in newness of the Spirit.”